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building with a relatively permanent tenant. The Laboratory would have the advantage of convenient interplay with university faculty and students, but would also assume the burdens of a landlord/tenant relationship and some compromises in the control of its programs and Smithsonian identity.

Avoiding the high rental costs for the first decade, an alternative option is to build the new laboratory on Smithsonian property, using authorized and appropriated funds. Assuming that the Institution's goal is to conduct high quality environmental research in a well equipped facility accessible to good field sites, there is a compelling case to follow this option and move the Radiation Biology Laboratory to a new laboratory at the Chesapeake Bay Center for Environmental Studies. Under a dynamic director, with a good research program and an excellent site and facilities, such a merged operation will attract eminent visiting scientists and good students.

The result would be one with a Federal budget of about $3 million and a total staff of 70 (Fiscal Year 1983) (compared with the $3 million budget and staff of 86 at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, where despite its remote location it attracts more visiting scientists and students than it can conveniently accommodate).

The merging of the two organizations will provide an opportunity to develop a broader approach to environmental science than is possible with the bureaus working separately. The merger would combine the current Center research on communities and whole organisms with the study of processes at the cellular and subcellular levels, which are the strengths of the Laboratory staff. Considerable data has been accumulated at the Laboratory on monitoring solar radiation, with much still to be done on the biological effects of ultra-violet light. A successfully integrated research program